BULLshot: Christopher Sicilliano

JP:The protagonist is having a very bad day. Even space and time seem to distort to the guy’s disadvantage. This usually doesn’t happen to us in the real world, but these unfair distortions seem to make perfect emotional sense. Why is that?

Christopher Sicilliano: We meet the narrator of Home Furnishings precisely at the moment his relationship with Samantha comes to an end. But it’s clear from what he tells us the end has been coming for some time. He admits he’s not a good provider. He admits their house is infested with vermin. All signs point to an inevitable conclusion, and not a good one.

For some reason, though, the narrator and even Samantha have been trying to delay the inevitable. He keeps the severity of the infestation a secret from her. She continues furnishing the house, presumably to make it a home. Despite their efforts, the flood waters continue to rise, so to speak. Eventually the levee breaks and and all that pent up inevitability comes crashing in, and the narrator is helpless to stop it.

I think that’s why the distortion of time in this story seems fitting, even accurate. The narrator has lost control of the situation. He’s come to the tipping point. He’s beyond it, in fact. There is little he can do now to slow the momentum of the narrative he helped create.

About the Author

Josh Peterson has published short stories in over a dozen literary journals. Over the years, he's found work as an environmental writer, a medical writer, a comedy writer and a new-media journalist. He's currently working on a novel.